Heat - Tapa dura

A "GLOBE & MAIL" BEST BOOK OF 2006 A "NEW YORK TIMES" NOTABLE BOOK OF 2006 "Sharing Buford's table talk is a pleasure not to be passed up." -- Michael Redhill, "The Globe and Mail " ""Heat "is a book about obsession, written by a man in the grip of one. It is fuelled by food, but food is not its only subject -- love, sex, comradeship, terror and pain are all part of the story too." --"The Telegraph" "A dazzling and funny account of two magnificently mad years." --"The Guardian" "[Buford] excels at vibrantly colourful descriptive writing. . . . What shines through is the story of Bill Buford falling in love with food, and his passionate journey of learning." --"Vancouver Sun " "it is clear that Buford can hold his own with anyone in the foodie pedantry stakes.... "Heat" is a subtle, expletive-heavy, genuine account of a writer's engagement with food.... [an] ultimately nourishing book." ""--"Times Literary Supplement" "A messy, brilliant book, Praise for "Among the Thugs": "An important, perhaps prophetic, book. . .both exciting and sad at the core. . . . Buford is a superbly talented reporter." --"The New York Times Book Review" "Brilliant. . . . One of the most unnerving books you will ever read." --"Newsweek" "Animated, witty, and so pungent you can taste the stale lager." --"Washington Post Book World" "From the Hardcover edition." Praise for "Among the Thugs": " An important, perhaps prophetic, book. . .both exciting and sad at the core. . . . [Buford is] a superbly talented reporter." -- "The New York Times Book Review" " Brilliant. . . . One of the most unnerving books you will ever read." -- "Newsweek" " Animated, witty, and so pungent you can taste the stale lager." -- "Washington Post Book World" "From the Hardcover edition." Praise for "Among the Thugs: "An important, perhaps prophetic, book. . .both exciting and sad at the core. . . . [Buford is] a superbly talented reporter." --"The New York Times Book Review "Brilliant. . . . One of the most unnerving books you will ever read." --"Newsweek "Animated, witty, and so pungent you can taste the stale lager." --"Washington Post Book World

Heat is the story of an amateur cook surviving - or, perhaps more accurately, trying to survive - in a professional kitchen.

Until recently, Bill Buford was an enthusiastic, if rather chaotic, home cook. His meals were characterized by two incompatible qualities: their ambition and his inexperience at preparing them. Nevertheless, his lifelong regret was that he'd never worked in a professional kitchen.

Then, three years ago, an opportunity presented itself. Buford was asked by the New Yorker to write a profile of Mario Batali, a Falstaffian figure of voracious appetites who ran one of New York's most successful three-star restaurants. Batali had learned his craft by years of training - first, working in London with the young Marco Pierre White; then in California during the Food Revolution; and finally in Italy, being taught how to make pasta by hand in a hillside trattoria. Buford accepted the commission, if Batali would let him work in his kitchen, as his slave. He worked his way up to being a 'line cook' and then left New York to apprentice himself under the very teachers who had taught his teacher: preparing game with Marco Pierre White, making pasta in a hillside trattoria, and finally, in a town in Northern Italy, becoming an Italian butcher.

Heat is a marvellous hybrid: a memoir of Buford's kitchen adventure, the story of Batali's amazing rise to culinary fame, a dazzling behind-the-scenes look at a famous restaurant, and an illuminating exploration of why food matters. It is a book to delight in, and to savour.

(2003-10-17)